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Analyst upgrades has a huge impact on company shares last week,
particularly those of
Yahoo
(
YHOO
),
King
(
KING
) and
Netflix
(
NFLX
). Here's a look at the top stories-

Yahoo Analyst Upgrade

Yahoo shares jumped last week as Piper Jaffrey analyst Gene
Munster
said
that the market was under-estimating the value of Yahoo's holdings
in Alibaba. The analyst expects Yahoo shares to rally 20% as the
date for the IPO draws near.

Yahoo's shares have languished in the recent past as filings
with the SEC indicated that the company's holdings were slightly
less than previously estimated. Yahoo will offload 40% of its
holdings in the upcoming IPO, which will release cash for
investments, acquisitions and/or dividends.

Google Takes Browser Leadership

Adobe Digital Index recently released a report that says that
Google's
(
GOOGL
) browser market share in the U.S. has surpassed that of
Microsoft
(
MSFT
). As quoted in a recent media report, Google's Android and Chrome
browsers together account for a 67.5% share. Although Google is not
the leader on either the desktop or mobile platforms on a
standalone basis, it is well ahead of the others (Microsoft 18.6%,
Yahoo 10.1%, others the balance) when both platforms are
considered.

Apple
(
AAPL
) has a 59.1% share of the mobile browser segment, but no presence
in desktops. Since mobile devices will continue to outgrow desktop
devices in the foreseeable future and Google's bread and butter is
search, Apple's decision to gradually push it out of its devices is
a source of pain. This could be one of the reasons for its
Chromebook, which continues to grow strongly off a small
base.

Company

Last Week

Last 6 Months

AAPL

+1.18%

+19.00%

FB

+1.49%

+21.50%

YHOO

+2.88%

-9.92%

GOOG

+1.64%

GOOGL

+1.44%

+7.24%

MSFT

+0.24%

+13.25%

INTC

+0.78%

+20.79%

CSCO

+2.15%

+14.60%

GOOG = Class C shares (new, non-voting)

GOOGL = Class A shares (old, 1 vote per share)

Other stories you may have missed
-

Corporate

Yahoo Closes Some Businesses
: In line with plans to shed underperforming product lines, Yahoo
CEO Marissa Mayer said that Shine (a women's lifestyle site), Xobni
(a contact management app) and Yahoo Voices (a people-finding
search engine) would be shut down this month. This doesn't mean
that Yahoo is doing away with these business ideas - for instance,
it has already launched Yahoo Beauty, which is a digital magazine
run by makeup artist Bobbi Brown. But Yahoo is either integrating
or creating new products that match Yahoo's new brand image.

Google to Shutter Orkut
: Google's social networking platform Orkut that picked up strongly
in some parts of the world is on its way out. The company plans to
close the service by Sep 30, saying that the strong growth rates in
YouTube, Blogger and Google+ made this a non-strategic product.
It's not clear if Google+ is headed the same way, but it's a
possibility considering that Vic Gundotra, the VP looking after
Google's social efforts left earlier this year.

Regulatory

Intel to Pay the FCC
: The FCC has determined that Intel operated prototype wireless
devices in violation of its rules. In 2012, Intel admitted that its
actions may have violated the said rules and it has now agreed to
pay $144,000 in fines. It has also adopted a 3-year compliance
plan.

Facebook's Emotions-Study Under Scrutiny
: A UK regulator is looking into
Facebook's
(
FB
) unauthorized manipulation of 700,000 users' news feeds in an
attempt to gauge the emotional impact on their close ones. Despite
the public uproar, the FTC has turned a blind eye. Facebook
defended itself by saying that it was taking responsibility for its
actions and would do better in the future but of course everything
was done in the users' best interests. Facebook says it is
authorized by the terms of its data use policy. The experiment took
place two years ago but was published recently.

Google Must Face Privacy Music
: The trouble with Google's Street View maps continues. In an
attempt to develop the maps, Google dug into personal information
of users that angered privacy advocates. The Supreme Court has
upheld the ruling of an appeals court that Google violated the
provisions of the U.S. Wiretap Act and set aside Google's argument
that its actions were exempted by a clause related to radio
signals.

Amazon Takes on the FTC
: The FTC has asked Amazon to take better precautions to prevent
unauthorized purchases by kids. Amazon doesn't want to maintain
additional records and the company is already in compliance with
the guidelines that FTC set for Apple earlier this year. So it is
standing by its argument that its system is good, that its
notifications adequately displayed and that money is refunded where
necessary. If the FTC pursues the matter, it could end up in
court.

New Technology/Products

Facebook Messenger for iPad
: Facebook has released a clean new Facebook Messenger app for iPad
with only the essential features liketext chats, voice calling,
image sharing, voice memos and stickers and minus the other
paraphernalia like news feed, profiles, games and other Facebook
apps. A tablet-optimized version for Android is not available
yet.

Apple Adds Partners to CarPlay
: Apple's in-dash vehicle entertainment system CarPlay is gathering
steam. The company has announced nine new auto makers (Audi,
Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Fiat, Mazda, Ram, Abarth and Alfa Romeo)
that will incorporate CarPlay in future vehicles. CarPay will hit
the market in Pioneer Systems this summer.

Yahoo's Fickr Dataset Is Huge
: Yahoo has released Yahoo Flickr Creative Commons 100 Million,
which is a huge dataset including 99.3 million photos and 700,000
videos including metadata like title, camera type, description,
tags and related social data in the form of comments, likes, etc.
The data can be used for developing artificial intelligence
systems.

Companies Collaborate to Improve Data Center
: Microsoft, Google, Broadcom, Mellanox and Arista Networks are
collaborating to create a new data center infrastructure based on a
new Ethernet specification. The idea is to enable data center
operation over a 25 or 50 Gbps Ethernet link protocol, according to
25 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium.

Gartner Lowers Estimates for Global IT Spending
: Gartner lowered its IT spending estimates for 2014 from 3.2% to
2.1%. The research firm sees pricing pressure in devices and data
center systems, which it expects will have a negative impact on
overall revenue. Growth in software and IT services is expected to
be much stronger at 6.9% and 3.8%, respectively. Gartner estimates
that IT spending grew a mere 1% in 2013.

Xiaomi Talks Sales Numbers
: Privately-held Xiaomi said it sold 26.11 million smartphones in
the first half of 2014, more than the 18.7 million sold in all of
2013. Revenue surged 149% from first-half 2013. Xiaomi is China's
third largest smartphone brand behind Samsung and Lenovo, according
to research firm Counterpoint.

Microsoft's Loss Is Google's Gain
: A report from Kantar Worldpanel reveals Microsoft's shrinking
smartphone market share. The report from the research firm says
that Microsoft's share in the U.S. dropped from 4.7% year over year
to 3.8% in May 2014. It is also losing momentum in Germany and
Brazil and getting completely pushed out of China. Google is the
clear winner with its Android OS share going from 52% to 61.9% in
the U.S. Apple's iOS went from 41.9% to 32.5% and Blackberry
remained under 2%.

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